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DURKHEIM and WEBER
Training Handout
Compare and Contrast
We link Durkheim
with social fact, and Weber
with Verstehen. Durkheim's writings led to functionalism while
Weber's writing led to symbolic interactionism.
Both were "Fathers"
of sociology, and wrote mainly in the late nineteenth century.
Both called for applying the scientific
method to the study of society, and both wanted sociologists to be objective
(although they had different ideas about objectivity).
Both contributed to the sociological
perspective. Both criticised Marx, but in different ways.
The main difference between them
was that Durkheim coined the term "social fact" to indicate that
there were forces beyond the individual that affected their behaviour,
while Weber said we needed to understand the meanings people put on their
behaviour to understand society.
The approach by Weber has developed
into modern perspective of sociology called symbolic
interactionism.
Durkheim's study of suicide to show
how rates of suicide differed between groups with different social characteristics,
although we do not have enough information to predict which individuals
would commit suicide.
Suicide rates are quite predictable,
when based on specific social characteristics. Durkheim used this to explain
"social fact."
The idea of seeing social facts as
external to the individual was Durkheim's contribution. See "Inside
or Outside?"
In contrast, we see Weber's verstehen
as a "deeper understanding" (which is why we use the German term rather
than the weaker English equivalent) of the society which we all carry within
us.
Although we might at first see these
differences as mutually exclusive and un-reconcilable, Weber's "internal"
approach and Durkheim's "external" approach, we must integrate these two
perspectives.
Modern sociology requires that you
see them both as valid and operating simultaneously.
Weber
made other important contributions, eg to the study of bureaucracy and
to the factor of religious beliefs and values in social change.
Similarly,
Durkheim
made many other contributions, such as differentiating between organic
and mechanical solidarity, and explaining anomie.
Weber's study of the rise of capitalism,
and his thesis that it was caused by the rise of the Protestant ethic,
can be used to contrast him with Marx.
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